"Advantage in resolution"

[sanj]

This may be a dumb one for most of you all but I am trying to learn this concept, so if you can pls find a moment to share your knowledge.

I keep reading that Canon 5d3 has "advantage in resolution" compared to 1dx.
What does it exactly mean? That we can crop more? Or something else.

Would love to learn this and did not find much in Google.

Thx...

[neuroanatomist]

22 MP vs. 18 MP. That's all it means. 

Unless you're printing >40" prints, or severely cropping, I doubt 4 MP will make any difference. 

Also, the larger pixels of the 1D X mean you can stop down a bit more before diffraction costs you sharpness, that's a disadvantage in resolution of the 5DIII.

[sanj]

Thank you Neuro for the response. I had a feeling you would help. Honest!

But I am not sure I understand this yet.

The brilliant Bryan of Canon review says: "The 1D X's full frame sensor especially shines in comparison to the APS-C sensor format 7D. The 1D X also compares quite favorably to the APS-H 1D sensor format Mark IV. The higher resolution full frame sensor DSLRs (5D II, 5D III and 1Ds III) show an advantage in resolution."

Juza of Juza photo says: "At ISO 100, the Nikon D800 shows a clear advantage in terms of resolution; it also has slightly less shadow noise than the Canon SLRs."

I want to know what does the word 'show' imply. Show what and where, is what I am trying to figure out.

Thx again!

[neuroanatomist]

Strictly speaking, resolution is a measure of the ability of an optical system to two closely spaced points as being separate.  In that regard, the 7D wins, because it has the highest pixel density.  But that only helps until diffraction sets in.

Practically, mostly it means how much you can blow something up on the computer screen and still have it look sharp.

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Neuro, has a good explanation. 
I might add that there are times when having more pixels in a image (higher resolution) is a noticible advantage. 
For example a image with a extreme amount of detail like a landscape image, or a large group of people.  The downside is that it takes more computer resources and time to edit a image.  The saved file size of a image is much smaller than the uncompressed file size when its being edited.  A D800 might take close to 200mb in some cases.
Editing  a 18 MP image is much faster,